National Day of Stitch

Rev. Veronica James joins Jill, Jan and Marjorie stitching leaves

(Images are the property of Skipton Branch of The Embroiderers' Guild)
Saturday 6th August 2016

We celebrated National Day of Stitch in Holy Trinity Church in Skipton.  It was an ideal venue with a good footfall of locals and tourists visiting the lovely cafe and excellent bookshop within the church.  We had lots of interest in the paisley leaves that we were stitching and one gentleman even wrote a poem for us! 

Rev. Veronica James took the opportunity to create a whole display and Sunday sermon about textiles entitled 'From Fleece to Fabric' complete with a whole fleece from a local farmer. 

Kicked out of church for a wedding!

Loop Braiding for Beginners

(Photos taken and reproduced with the permission of Gail Marsh. Images are the property of Skipton Branch of The Embroiderers' Guild)

Monday 18th July

I'm always astounded by the breadth of knowledge of our members and Monday's 'skills sharing day' did not disappoint!  Gail Marsh led a mini workshop teaching The Secrets of Loop Braiding.

Finger loop braiding was popular in Europe and Medieval England from the 12th to the 16th century but is still practiced in isolated areas of Europe, Middle East, South America and Japan.  The resultant braids are used as fastening cords or trimmings.  Gail has studied the technique in depth and has produced her own fingering diagrams to explain the method.  Her instructions are set down in detail in a lovely book which is a replica of household management books of the day. 

The rest of the day was spent collecting items for the XL Exhibition and judging by the entries so far, it's going to be a stunning show!